Take Home Essay - Should Students Wear School Uniforms?

Should Students Wear School Uniforms?
(I personally agree)

     Most private schools force students to wear school uniforms, because they give students sense of belonging to the school. However, School uniforms are useless and outdated tradition.

21st century is characterized by freedom and individuality. However, by making students wear unified clothes, schools ignore the individuality of students. Students not only express themselves through their words and behaviors but also by what they wear to school.

The typical groups that require their members to wear school uniform include military, and bureaucracy. All of which are cold, hierarchical, and authoritarian groups. Schools unintentionally create authoritarian atmosphere just by adopting school uniforms.

    Forcing students to wear school uniforms is more than just ruining of the fashion. Students shouldn’t be forced to wear what they don’t want to wear, and should have the right to wear what they want to. School uniform clearly restricts the freedom of students

University of Chicago Prompt

Essay Option 2.

Heisenberg claims that you cannot know both the position and momentum of an electron with total certainty. Choose two other concepts that cannot be known simultaneously and discuss the implications. (Do not consider yourself limited to the field of physics).
Inspired by Doran Bennett, BS'07 Chemistry and Mathematics.

      Heisenberg claims that the momentum and position of an electron can’t be known simultaneously. The more precise we know about momentum, the less certain we are about the position. I think my weaknesses and strengths are similar to the position and the momentum of an electron. The more I realize about my strengths the less I know about my weaknesses, and vice versa.

     Few people are aware of both their strengths and weaknesses. Knowing about strengths makes people feel satisfied with them and forget about their weaknesses. Like every men, I have many weaknesses as well as strengths. It is very hard for me to fix my weaknesses when I’m aware of my strengths because it makes me feel proud of myself. I feel like I can fix my weaknesses later on because they aren’t that significant. Knowledge about my strengths blurs out the awareness of my weaknesses. Sometimes this fact puts me into a trouble. When I take two tests in a row, getting a good score at the first test usually leads me to fail the next test because I forget that I am actually bad at certain subjects and prepare less for the test.

The bigger problem is that this sometimes hinders me from working harder to improve myself. I get fixed to a certain state. Every people have their own weaknesses, so one should try hard to overcome his or her weaknesses and improve. For instance, when I think that I’m good at science, I forget that my writing skills aren’t that good, and then I don’t try hard to improve my writing. Then, my writing skill is fixed to where I was. In order to break from that sate, I need external stimulation like getting bad grade in a writing class.

    Similar things happen in the opposite way. When I’m focused on my weakness, I lose confidence and get depressed, so I forget my strengths. For instance, after I fail at my French quiz, I my mind suffers with the fact that I’m terrible at French, and for a moment I forget that I am actually good at something else. After I realize my weakness and try to fix them, I can’t remind myself of my strengths because I’m too busy improving my weaknesses. My mind is stressed and desperate to solve the flaw. When I first got into middle school, I realized that I was not good at English as my classmate who had lived abroad for a long period of time. During that period, I wasn’t proud of myself because I was too busy improving my language skills.   

I think the ideal situation is while reminding myself that I have various strengths, never forget that I have many weaknesses and need to keep trying to improve myself. However, it is hard to find the equilibrium. Since it is hard to know both respects at the same time, I think it is important task for the rest of my life to find the spot where I can keep improving without being depressed or stressed. 

10 Flash Fictions

1. Finally I'm going to propose a girl I fell in love at first sight. As I approach her, I notice something shiny on her ring finger.

2. He woke up in the middle of the night, and was extremely thirsty. He picked what was next to him and drank. The next day he found an empty bottle of ink next to him.

3. A boy dived into the swimming pool. Strangely enough, the water tasted a bit salty.

4. He studied chapter 6 overnight for the quiz. 10 minutes before the exam, he entered the classroom and saw all the other kids studying chapter 7.

5. A soldier inside a trench was writing a letter. A week later, a bride to be receives an unfinished letter.

6. They were dating. The girl says “I should take this urgent phone call” and goes out. She returns with wet hands.

7. A boy was bullied by his classmates. Tomorrow, he will carry something other than his backpack to the school.  

8. Three exams in one day, and got 2 hours before the lights are out. 

9. He suspected other people for the lost pen. Suddenly, he notices that something is in his pocket.  

10. At the airport, he couldn’t find his passport.   

Is It Wrong to Use Animal for Human Benefit? – The Review of “Earthlings”

Our ancestors began eating meat as early as 1.5 million years ago. It is our instinctive, animal desire to prey upon other animals on earth. Humans have hunted and used other animals for clothing, and many other purposes. Since then, our perception about animal rights has improved a lot. However, the tradition of eating meat and using animals has barely changed. A documentary “Earthlings” addresses the issue of our ancient tradition of a mainly meat diet, along with other animal abuses. While some people acclaim this movie, many others oppose the ideas presented. Although I could agree with many arguments that this documentary made, the method used is not very satisfactory.

First, I want to point out the issue of adhering to the emotional appeal. Like many animal rights organizations and activists, this documentary tries to persuade people through emotional approaches, not with factual data and logical reasoning. This documentary barely uses logic, but only uses shock therapy through selected footages. The problem is that emotional approaches can be misleading. Actually, the question of whether eating meat is harmful or beneficial for human beings, animals, and the environment is very substantial and needs to be addressed prudently. Other than emotional aspects, there are many other aspects that we need to consider. Some people actually argue that eating a moderate amount of meat is healthy for the environment. For instance, animals kept on small farms also produce benefits such as fending off predators and pests and fertilizing soil. Also, meat diet can be healthier. Many scientists and doctors say that humans cannot live without consuming protein, and we need to eat meat which contains complete protein. Plant proteins are incomplete which means they do not contain all of the amino acids needed by the human body. Also, meat is highly efficient, which means that it cancels out the resources that were used to produce meat. The documentary failed to deal with these oppositions.

In my personal opinion, the act of using animals for purposes like getting meat or leather itself should not be blamed. Even animals eat and hunt other animals for food and other reasons like territories. Also, any people or documentary does not have the right to force people to become vegetarians or vegans. Just as we can’t force lions and cheetahs to become vegetarians because it is not right to kill another living creature, we can’t force people to stop eating meat because we think it is wrong.

The example of corporate ranching

However, humans are different from animals that we are way over the limit. Using the shocking imagery and video clips, Earthlings successfully conveys the message that humans have crossed the line. In this movie, human beings exhibit total disrespect towards the animals. Human beings raise thousands of animals in a cage without allowing them any free space, and treat them unethically in the process of raising. Although using animals for our good might be justified, these acts cannot be justified at all. I fully agree with the documentary on the point that corporate ranching and inhumane practices are terrible and should be put to an end immediately.

The essence of the points made in this movie is not that we should stop take advantage of animals at all, but pointing to the fact that we are lacking basic respect for the species on earth other than human. The movie calls this attitude as “speciesism” and asserts that our unconscious sense of superiority should stop, and people need to start respect all animal species. I definitely agree that “speciesism” needs to stop. The famous Russian writer Leo Tolstoy said that “As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.” Our unconscious superiority against animals translates into racism and disrespect for other human beings. Speciesism and Racism share the same root, which is disregarding another creature. If people stop treating animals as inferior beings and start to treat them with respect, problems like racism and war will also be improved.

     Nothing is good in an extreme level. It is too extreme to say that we should stop killing animals for any purposes. Not getting benefit from animals at all would be just at unnatural as exploiting animals. It would create many side effects. We should remind that issues like eating meat and using animal skins were not a big problem 1000 years ago. Now, it’s a huge problem. The difference is that we are exploiting animals now. Although our perception of animal rights has improved, humans still possess speciesism, which a belief that human beings are above other animal species. The documentary “Earthlings” shows humans treating other animal speices as inferior beings and ignoring their rights through real video footage. Although the documentary “Earthlings” clearly has a limit that it lacks a logical approach to the issue, it is a good documentary which raises our awareness of the issue.

Ben X Review

Ben X Review

Monologues used in the film

    Ben X is a refreshing movie made in Belgium. Overall, it is a very good and heavy movie. Unlike typical entertainment movies, this movie is intended to be controversial and thought provoking. From the beginning to the end, the movie strives to leave a message about various problems in our society. The movie incorporates dark mood which adds seriousness to the movie. Characteristically, the movie shows monologues of characters like an interview, so the audience feels like they’re watching a real documentary.

   The movie did a nice job in addressing various social issues. It deals with many issues such as autism, suicide, bullying at school, virtual reality, indifferent society, and family discord such as divorce. Dealing with many issues certainly has risks. The movie might lose its focus and deal with each issue superficially. However, the movie cleverly blends those issues into Ben’s life story and makes connection between the issues it’s dealing with. For instance, being bullied at school, which is his reality, leads Ben to be obsessed with his fake identity inside the computer game. Accordingly, bullying causes Ben to consider suicide as an escape from his harsh reality. This also shows that our society is indifferent to individuals because while he was making a whole book containing methods of suicide, nobody even cares about it.

      The twist at the ending was brilliant. Throughout the movie, the movie foreshadows that something terrible is going to happen. At the beginning, Ben’s mother says something like “somebody had to die. That’s when people realize things are wrong.” Viewers start to expect that somebody will die in the film. However, when the movie reaches the end, the movie overturns viewer’s expectation by showing that the death of Ben was actually fabricated. It was the family’s plan to help Ben from bullies. After that, when the audience begins to expect that all the conflicts have been resolved, the movie shows that the girl who Ben fell in love with was actually an illusion. The movie breaks the viewers’ expectations one more time.   

     Ben X shows why people get addicted to computer games. When we see game addicts, we blame the addict for their intemperance. We assume that there is a problem with that individual. However, most of the game addicts are people who seek escape from their harsh and seemingly inescapable reality. In pathological modern society, it is very hard to get consolation from reality. Ben X shows that society is to blame, not the individual.

Ben is bullied at his school because he is autistic

     Also, the movie reveals how selfishly and hypocritically we view and treat autistic people. Ben has suffered from bullying since he was very young, which made him obsessed with game and suicide. The doctors who treat Ben only try to explain and understand Ben in their standards and don’t care about Ben’s current situations and predicaments. Some doctors put Ben in stressful situation, and doctors don’t even realize that he has been bullied.  

      This movie is not perfect. There are some irrelevant scenes that blur the message, like the scene in which the car runs toward Ben’s mother. The editing was bit unnatural. However, the message the movie tried to convey is serious and the method it used was original and effective. 

Review of the first 1 hour of the movie Ben X

      

    So far, the movie  introduces the main character Ben, people and situations around him. Ben has autism and indulging in computer game. In reality, he is being excluded by his classmates and some school gang members bully him. His mother is closer to a observer rather than a protector. Ben's doctor talks a lot and tires to explain his behavior but never seem to treat him with appropriate respect and warmth. 

    Since he is not getting enough attention and love in a real life, Ben seeks them in a virtual reality. Before and after school, he plays online video game and meets a girl who seems to really care about him. Even when he is humiliated at school, he doesn't get a consolation from his family or his doctor, but gets it from his virtual friend in the video game. 

     So what's going to happen next? I suppose that since the reality is getting harsher and harsher for Ben, he will try to meet his virtual friend in his real life. Meeting with the girl would change Ben positively since he will finally get love and attention he needed to break out of his own world. 

     

My Childhood Experience - Revised

     You were in third grade of elementary school when you started to learn how to swim. When the summer vacation began, your mother persuaded you to go to the swimming pool at the local sports center every morning. You resisted at first, but your mother insisted that men should know how to swim and she thought that swimming would make you healthy. So every morning, you woke up early and went to the swimming pool.

     You didn’t know how to swim at all, so you started from absolute basics. On the first day, the instructor promised you that if you try hard, you would be able to swim before the vacation ends. After several days, you ran into a girl. You were very surprised and astonished because she was in the same class and you had a good feeling towards her. You and that girl awkwardly said hello to each other. Then while you were outside the lane, you stole a glance at her and were surprised that she was very good at swimming. You, who had strong self-esteem, felt terrible that you hadn’t learn swimming earlier. That day, you practiced harder than ever. You and the girl met occasionally after that first and awkward meeting.

Time passed, and your swimming gradually improved. One day, you went to the pool as usual. And the girl in your class was also there that day. You also chatted a little with that girl since you were in the same lane with her.

Then, after a while, your instructor came to you and suggested a race between you and another boy. You had never seen him before, but he seemed to be very good at swimming. You were surprised by the unexpected suggestion and tried to escape, but it was useless. The instructor persuaded that it is going to be exciting and a good opportunity to check how much you improved. Further opposition would make the situation weird. Thus, unwillingly, you agreed to the offer.

You were only a 10-year-old kid, but you were also a man and you couldn’t lose in front of a woman. Although you were not yet any close to the perfect swimmer, you made a firm resolution that you will win the race. When the race started, you tried your best. You moved your legs in a maximum speed. You quickly looked at your opponent, and he was increasing his lead over you. Soon, you got tired but couldn’t stop. You moved your legs faster than before. You thought with a good chance, she might be watching you. Suddenly, you couldn’t move your leg. Then, your leg started to hurt very badly. You got a cramp in your leg.

The instructor was very surprised and ran to you to rescue you. You were disgracefully on the floor getting help from the instructor.  You were very ashamed and couldn’t think of anything else.

    Walking back home from the pool, limping, you thought that you were too competitive. You shouldn’t have been so overly competitive. Looking back, it was not a big deal at all. After that day, you never tried to impress other people by pretending.

A Quotation from "The Martian Chronicles"

"No, you're not"

     I like this quote simply because it was the most shocking line in this book so far. Captain John Black was relieved and appeased when his dead family showed up. He spent a fine day with them and was trying to get to sleep. All of a sudden, a strange hypothesis stroke his head. He imagined that all of his families are delusions and hallucinations made by the martians, who were trying to repel the alien intrusion. Then, he tried to escape from his hallucinatory house but his "brother" Ed stops him. Captain John lies that he was going for a drink of water. Then Ed replies that he is not thirsty. John replies back by saying that he is thirsty. Ed finally says "No, you're not" then kills Captain John Black.

     This is also a line which makes it clear that the third expedition ended up as another failure.

My Childhood Experience

     You were third grade in elementary school when you started to learn how to swim. When the summer vacation started, your mother persuaded you to go to the swimming pool at the local sports center every morning. You resisted at first, but your mother was very insistent because she thought men should know how to swim and she thought that swimming would make you healthy. So every morning, you woke up early and went to the swimming pool.

     You didn’t know how to swim at all, so you started from the absolute basics. On the first day, the instructor promised you that if you try hard, you would be able to swim before the vacation ends. After several days had passed, you ran into a girl. You were very surprised and astonished because she was in the same class and you had a good feeling towards her. You and that girl awkwardly said hello to each other. Then while you were outside the lane, you stole a glance at her and were surprised that she was very good at swimming. You, who had strong self-esteem, felt terrible that you hadn’t learn swimming earlier. That day, you practiced harder than ever. You and the girl met occasionally after that first and awkward meeting.

Time passed, and your swimming gradually improved. One day, you went to the pool as usual. And the girl in your class was also there that day. You also chatted a little with that girl since you were in the same lane with her.

Then, after a while, your instructor came to you and suggested a race between you and another boy. You had never seen him before, but he seemed to be very good at swimming. You were surprised by the unexpected suggestion and tried to escape from it, but it was useless. He persuaded that it was going to be exciting and a good opportunity to check how much you improved. Further opposition would make the situation weird. Thus, unwillingly, you agreed to the offer.

You were only 10 years old kid, but you were also a man and you couldn’t lose in front of a woman. Although you were not yet any close to the perfect swimmer, you made a firm resolution that you will win the race. When the race started, you tried your best to win the race. You moved your legs in a maximum speed. You quickly looked at your opponent, and he was increasing his lead over you. Soon, you got tired but you couldn’t stop. You moved your legs faster than before. You thought with a good chance, she might be watching you. Suddenly, you couldn’t move your leg. Then, your leg started to hurt very badly. You got a cramp in your leg.

The instructor was very surprised and ran to you to rescue you. I was disgracefully on the floor getting help from the instructor.  You were very ashamed and couldn’t think of anything else.

    Walking back home from the pool, limping, you thought that you were too competitive. You shouldn’t have been so overly competitive. Looking back, it was not a big deal at all. After that day, you never tried to impress other people by pretending.

National Testing Should be put to an End

NCLB test in U.S.

GCSE in England & Northern Ireland

수능 in Korea

National Testing Should be put to an End

    Many countries like England, United States, and Korea require students to take national exams to measure how much students have learned. National testing has huge impact on education within a country because most governments use the result of the test to subsidize or penalize schools. While many governments are still claiming that national testing is beneficial and implementing national test, national testing should be put to an end. National testing clearly has limitations and has negative side effects. Since government only provides financial support to schools which accepts national testing and discriminates schools based on how well their students perform, it imposes burden on schools and teachers. Teachers might be forced or induced to focus overly on materials that are relevant to the test. Also, national testing is a poor measure of student learning and is an inadequate measure of how much students have learned.

National Testing inevitably induces teachers to 'teach to the test', rather than teach life skills. National testing imposes burden on teachers and induce teachers to teach for tests, not for essential skills that students must acquire in school. Teachers might concentrate more on materials that are relevant to tests, or even make students only memorize to score higher. Moreover, subjects not covered or less important in the national testing might be taught cursorily although they are equally as important as other subjects. National testing tests subjects like writing, grammar, science, or math but can’t test subjects like art, music and sports due to the massive scale and equity of the test. Those subjects that are not tested on standardized tests might be ignored by schools and budgets might be reduced. According to the editorial in the internet newspaper The Daily Campus, after requiring high school test in grades nine through 11 in America by president Bush negative consequences followed

Teachers are now forced to focus their instruction on the tests, which are often watered-down and don't adequately indicate a student's proficiency. As teachers and administrators face the pressure of meeting the federally mandated proficiency standards, important student classes and activities have been reduced or eliminated. Art, music, physical education, social studies and other important subjects not tested have taken a back seat to intensive instruction geared specifically toward standardized tests;…(15-20)

Moreover, according to the article in the Time magazine “Is That Your Final Answer?,” teachers had to curtail field trips, elective courses and even student visits to the bathroom-all in an effort to cram more test prep into the school day(Morse 1). Students lost their chance to see the world and study comfortably because of the test. School shouldn’t be where students learn to score higher, but should be a place where students learn essential life skills.

     Moreover, national testing is inadequate measure of student learning. National, standardized tests measure all students in the nation with the same test. It does not consider students’ academic ability or how fast a student can learn. As a result, it ends up inappropriate for both talented and untalented students. The test is too easy for students with high academic ability, but it’s too hard for students with low academic ability. For instance, according to One-size-fits-all exams fail the worst as well as the best, the article published in The Telegraph by John Clare, by 2002, 90% of students at the best schools got the top grade, whilst 300,000 of the United Kingdom's worst pupils failed to pass (Clare 1). As a result, national testing discourages students who learn slowly compare to other students. The article also mentions that the test “has not only become too easy for the academically able, but it is still too difficult for the bottom 40 per cent, who cry out for proper vocational courses to help them make sense of their last three years of compulsory schooling”(Clare 1).

Advocates of national test argue that it ensures all students learn the same, essential skills and information. However, it does not. Numerous essential skills and knowledge like confidence, public speaking skills, academic depth, creativity and many others are unable to be measured by testing. Thus, national testing cannot ensure that students really learn important and essential skills in life. There is a more serious issue. National testing impedes students from learning import and essential skills and knowledge. As I mentioned above in the second paragraph, national testing makes teachers primarily concentrate on scoring higher, rather than teaching really important things in life. In addition to that, national testing alters the true meaning of education, thus leading students to lose interest in learning. In the article Is That Your Final Answer also mentions that “the tests have spawned an epidemic of distressing headlines: students failing--and being held back--en masse; frenzied parents enrolling first-graders in professional test-prep courses”(Morse ). National testing makes students study for the test, attend stressful prep courses thus making them lose interest in learning and studying voluntarily. There is another danger to the national testing. Testing creates heated competition between schools, teachers and parents. That means that there is a huge chance that students might be judged by their parents, teachers and schools by their grades. National testing make students lose interest in learning and creates effects that is exactly opposite of what is originally intended.

     As shown above, national testing is not at all beneficial to the education. National testing spoils the original purpose of education. Despite the fact that many governments are implementing national testing, I strongly believe that national testing should be banned.

Works Cited

"No Child Left Behind a flawed system." The Daily Campus 21 Feb. 2005. Web. 15 June 2012. .

Clare, John. "One-size-fits-all exams fail the worst as well as the best." The Telegraph 5 Aug. 2003: 1. Web. 15 June 2012. .

Morse, Jodie, Ann Blackman, Dan Cray, Mitch Frank, and Maggie Sieger. "Is That Your Final Answer?" TIME 19 June 2000: 1-3. Web. 15 June 2012. .

Step 2 : THIS HOUSE WOULD END NATIONAL TESTING

     Can national testing really measure how much students have learned? National testing clearly has limitations and it has some negative side effects. Since government only provides financial support to schools which accepts national testing and discriminates schools based on how well their students perform, it imposes burden on schools. Schools might only teach materials relevant to the test or simply teach how to get a good score.

Step 3 : Three Arguments

Points For


1. National testing encourages teachers to 'teach to the test', rather than teach life skills


2. National, standardized tests are a poor measure of student learning


Points Against


3. National testing will ensure all students learn the same, essential skills and information

Step 1 : THIS HOUSE WOULD END NATIONAL TESTING

     National testing of schools requires schools to test their children every year to measure how much they have learned. The government only gives money to schools which do the testing. The goal of national testing is to compare students in different schools and give extra money to those schools with students who are not doing as well. There are also penalties for principles of schools who have done badly for several years. Parents at failing schools also have the right to move their children to a different school .
     Many people believe national testing is wrong and will not achieve its aim. They argue that teachers and parents should be trusted with control of schools, not the government. Others argue that the only way to know how schools and students are performing is to compare them against schools and students elsewhere in the country. Some people nevertheless want national testing, so that all children sit the same test regardless of where they live, as they do in countries like the UK and France.

Photoessay

     

A BIg FIsh

      It was when I was 4^th grade in elementary school. My father and I woke up very early around 2 am to go fishing. The night before, my father told me that he was going fishing with his co workers and asked me to come with him. Of course, I said yes. We were going to the West Sea, and we arrived at the port around 4am. My father introduced me to his co-workers and bought some bait, hooks, and everything we need. The boat set off around 6am. While moving to the destination, I saw beautiful sunrise over the horizon. I was very excited.

When the boat arrived at the spot, we started fishing and waited for the fish to take the bait. Unfortunately, we didn’t catch much fish contrary to our expectations. However, as I vaguely remember, I wasn’t disappointed or felt boring because I was really excited that I was actually fishing, and I was spending time with my father. We thought we weren't very lucky that day because we caught relatively few compare to other days. After we waited several hours, my father got a bite. He carefully pulled the rod and finally got the fish onto the boat. He was glad that it was pretty big, and I was glad too. He told me to hold the fish and took a photo with me.

   

     We went several more fishing after that day. To me, my father is like a friend. Although he was strict when he had to, he tried to be my companion, rather than a supervisor. My father loved to travel with me and my sister and he showed the world as much as possible. We traveled many places on almost every weekends and experienced many things. One day in the winter, he drove me three hours all the way to Cherwon, Gangwon province to show me migratory birds

Through these experiences I was able to broaden my sight and develop my mind. I guess it wasn’t easy for him to travel on weekends after working very hard on weekdays, and when he really needs some rest. Some teenagers of my age have difficulty discussing their problems with parents because they are uncomfortable with their parents. Since my father always tried to get close to me, I had no problems communicating with my father and able to discuss my problems freely with him. 

     As I grew up., my father and I got busy with our own businesses and we rarely had a chance to be together. Naturally, we couldn’t travel together or spend time on weekends together. Now, we can’t even meet often since I moved into dormitory. However, memories of great times spent with my father never fade away. These memories are very precious to me and make me smile when I try to recall those memories. When I see my father, I learn a lot about fatherliness and remind myself that I would become a good father and do just like my father when I have a son.

Walmart Synthesis Essay : Shopping at Walmart is Unethica

    Nobody hates low prices, and pursuing low prices is not a bad thing at all. Especially during recent economic recessions, lower and middle class consumers are eager to save money by purchasing cheaper products. We all learn in our economics class that it is very natural for rational people to buy products that are cheaper than the other. Thus, many people view the prosperity of Walmart as an inevitable consequence of capitalism. However, Walmart has grown so powerful and influential that its obsession with lower price is harming the global society as a whole. Despite the fact that we can’t blame people for pursuing low prices, it is unethical to shop at Walmart. In this essay, I want to explore reasons with solid evidences why the shopping at Walmart is unethical.

     To begin, by pursuing low prices society is not benefited economically. In most cases, pursuing low price results in positive consequence by expediting competitions between the firms. Some people bring similar logic to the case of Walmart. For instance, Tom Van Riper wrote in his article “Wal-Mart Is Good for You” that an exchange of goods at low prices benefits everyone and also in the case of Walmart, it seems evident that its model of low prices brings more choice to consumers. But since Walmart is so powerful that it’s almost in the state of monopoly, the low price of Walmart is harmful to the economy. The more ordinary people shop at Walmart, the more local businesses shrink and close down. Thus, it breaks local communities and, as a result, reduces the purchasing power of ordinary consumers. The economic status of a nation depends largely on the household’s ability to buy and consume products. Walmart is making a negative impact on the economy of a nation by destroying the economy of households. As John Lanchester mentioned in his article “The Price of Pickles,” the poverty rate was higher in the counties with Walmart compare to counties without Walmart. Walmart creates and destroys jobs at the same time, and it seems that it’s destroying more jobs than it is creating. To add, Walmart is abusing their monopolistic position to distort the market and expand their business. They are now so powerful that they can even control the price in a market. For instance, as also demonstrated in “The Price of Pickles,” Walmart is selling products like pickles and salmon at such a ridiculously low price to the point that it’s excluding its competitors out of business and creating their own market. The pursuit of short term benefits of consumers is gradually harming the economy in a long term.

     Accordingly, shopping at Walmart is currently creating social problems that are not only limited to economic aspects. The biggest issue is violation of human rights. Walmart is so obsessed with price that it is paying less attention (or intentionally ignoring) the basic rights of its employees. Especially, the workers in developing nations who are not under the protection of law are exploited.As “The price of Pickles” mentions, workers in Bangladesh work 14 hours a day and earn only 13 cents per hour. Consumers are deliberately supporting these violations of Walmart by buying their products. Workers in the US are also receiving low wages and not getting any benefit from health insurance.

Furthermore, I want to point out the relationship of Walmart with its subcontractors. Just like many gigantic corporation, many small corporations rely on Walmart. Essentially, five to ten million people worldwide are involved in a deal with Walmart. As stated in Nathan Newman’s “Taking on Walmart and Its Subcontractors,” Walmart is exploiting 20,000 of its subcontractors and creating a global sweatshop.  All these problems are rooted on Wal-Mart’s irresponsible obsession with low prices. Any act that sacrifices other people’s happiness for the sake of their own happiness can be blamed as unethical. Buying products at Walmart is not an exception.

     To conclude, consumers must realize there are several reasons why buying products at Walmart is not ethical. Shopping at Walmart is surely convenient and practical, but it is selfish and irresponsible at the same time. In order to stop the side effects that Walmart is making, consumers can either wait for Walmart to change their price-centered policy or actively take part in the movement by avoiding unethical consumption. Considering the fact that the company’s tradition and management philosophy is very firm since its foundation, it is highly unlikely that Walmart would change its policy. No matter how powerful Walmart is, their success and policy depends on its consumers. By avoiding unethical consumptions, we can be responsible consumers.

Works Cited

Lanchester, John. "The Price of Pickles." London Review of Books 22 June 2006. Web. 6 Mar. 2012.

Riper, Tom V. "Wal-Mart Is Good For You." Forbes.com 10 Jan. 2008. Web. 6 Mar. 2012.

Newman, Nathan. "TAKING ON WAL-MART AND ITS SUBCONTRACTORS." NATHAN NEWMAN 1 June 2004. Web. 6 Mar. 2012.

Hyperlinks :
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n12/john-lanchester/the-price-of-pickles
http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/09/walmart-retail-economy-biz-commerce-cx_tvr_0110walmart.html?partner=moreover
http://www.nathannewman.org/archives/003174.shtml

Three sides to every story.

1^st person - Junsu

I came back into my room around 5:30, and it was a terrible day. I missed my morning exercise today. Because of this, I was in a terrible mood for the entire day. I asked my roommate Minho to wake me up this morning but he didn’t. Was he so apathetic to forget my request, or did he ignore me on purpose? It would probably be the latter. I feel that all he cares about is studying and his grades. As I walk through the door, I see another roommate, Han. He is doing something with his computer. He is so pathetic. How can he be so lethargic and stupid? Then I see Minho. He is studying. I am really amazed. He is like a studying machine, and he doesn’t need to rest. I feel a little disgusted.  Minho sees me and asks, “Did you check Mr. Kim’s essay grades? It’s posted on the Internet” “Why do you ask?” I reply abruptly. “I just let you know” He answers. Then I speculate that he is asking because he got a good grade, and he wants to show off.

Originally I planned to take a little nap before I eat dinner, but animosity and jealousy against Minho makes me sit in front of the desk. Ok. I determined to study, but what should I do? Suddenly, I remembered like a week ago, our math teacher Mr. Hickson has announced that he would be collecting our math notebooks to check our homework tomorrow. I studied for a while, and left the notebook on the desk and when to the cafeteria for dinner. After I returned from cafeteria, I tried to work on the homework again. However, to my surprise, my math notebook was not on the desk! I looked around to find it, but I couldn’t find it. Then, the person immediately came up in my mind was Minho.

*             *             *

3^rd person – Minho’s point of view

      Minho skipped his lunch and stayed in the room. As Minho is studying, Junsu comes in and searches for something. After a while, Junsu turns to him and accuses him with a very excited face. “Where is my math notebook?” Minho replies, “I don’t know.” “Oh, really? You don’t know?” Junsu is very persistent and makes a sarcastic comment. Minho’s face is turning red and he reacts with irritated voice “Are you suspecting me? “ Finally, Junsu is very angry and shouts at Minho. “I know that you are selfish and have a strong sense of rivalry, but you shouldn’t ruin other people’s work!”

Minho doesn’t reply to that. He seems like he has something to say but he does not say anything.  Minho opens the door and gets out. After a while, Junsu gets out of the room too.

*             *             *

2^nd person - Han’s point of view

     You are surprised watching them fight. Yesterday, you asked Junsu to borrow his math notebook, but he rejected you. You were very humiliated. Even before that moment, you felt alone and ignored by your roommates. You are not good at studying then your roommates were, so they implicitly ignored and belittled you. When they were talking about grades or academic things they naturally excluded you because your grades were bad. So you decided to put him in a trouble. You stole Junsu’s math notebook when he was eating dinner and hid it in your secret place. You were so careful that Minho didn’t even realize that you were stealing Junsu’s notebook.

You didn’t expect that this was going to get this big. You are surprised with Junsu’s reactions and how Minho responds to it. Junsu immediately speculates that Minho stole his notebook.

*             *             *

1^st person – Junsu

The next day, the math class began. I couldn’t find my math notebook. Minho must have stolen it.  I still can’t forgive Minho. Mr. Hickson came in and began talking about the homework. I began to sweat, and I feel so nervous that I can barely listen to what Mr. Hickson is saying. Then I see Minho’s face in front of me, and I swear to god that I will revenge him. Thinking of Minho, I was filled with anger again.

Then he realized that the whole class began to cheer. They were so happy that they were even shouting. “What happened? What are you cheering about?” I asked. Somebody answered, “He won’t be collecting our homework anymore. He said he would just leave it to us”. I am so relieved. Suddenly, I felt sorry for Minho. Maybe I was too harsh on Minho. When I return to my room, I will say that I’m sorry to Minho

*             *             *

2^nd person - Han

Junsu could never find his notebook. I never gave his notebook back. However, they soon made up and became friends again. Didn’t they fight because of the notebook? I wonder what happened. 

Outline for the "Three Sides Story".

1st person :  A boy watching Kony 2012 video. Next he watches the video of Jason Russel running around naked. After watching Kony 2012 he was convinced by the program, but after watching the Jason Russel video, he is dissuaded to participate in the program. He suspects the true intention of the program. Moreover, he decides to actively criticize the program and the organization of Jason Russel.

2nd person : Jason Russel's wife. Everybody thinks Jason Russel went crazy but she knows the true reason behind his action. She tries to protect Russel and worries that the good program might me affected by Russel's irrational behavior. 

3rd person :  African girl who was once kidnapped by Joseph Kony. She was extremely excited that Kony will meet his destiny. However, she is worried by the controversial video of Jason Russel running around naked. So she decides to support Jason Russel.

Catfish : How cyberspace and social networking services have affected our lives.

     Facebook has grown huge in a short period of time.  I remember that like a year ago, only few people were on facebook. However, almost everyone has their facebook account nowadays. The development in social networking services has entirely changed the pattern of human relations, and now people make so much more relationship through the internet than in reality. I think there are definitely some positive aspects of social networking services. We are never alone and always connected to other people. However, there are also very dangerous sides to these services too. The movie Catfish criticizes the act of getting happiness and compensation from the cyberspace

    After watching this film for the first time, I thought that this woman is pathetic and considering her unfortunate situation, her actions could be understood. However, after a while, I began to think that Angela’s actions should be blamed. Not for the sake of Nev, the one who was deceived by her false identity, but for the sake of Angela herself. In this movie, Angela tries to compensate the misfortunes in her life through her false identity on the social networking services. She pretends to be young woman, young boy and many other people. But can virtual reality compensate misfortunes in real life? I think it is limited to some degree. Well, we can get some consolation from the virtual reality, but it’s only running away from the reality. During the time she spent on making her false identity on the Internet, she could have spent that time differently on reality to make some real friends and really see some dance performances that she loved.

This is not only the special case of Angela, but instead it’s the story of all of us nowadays. Many people are trying to get happiness and satisfaction from the virtual reality, and not in the real life.   

When there was no facebook, the thing that only mattered was whether people were really happy or not. However, nowadays people are more concerned with how they are seen by others through Social networking service and whether they are seen to be happy or not. We are letting other people decide our own happiness. For instance, when there was no facebook, when we go to delicious restaurant what it only mattered was whether I enjoyed the food or not. However people nowadays are more concerned with taking the photo of the food and posting it on their facebook wall to display that they went to the restaurant to other people. Although the case of the movie Catfish was little extreme, we sometimes also fake ourselves just to look good.

     To sum up my point of view, I want to say that the attitude of trying to escape from reality is undesirable. The happiness or satisfaction that virtual reality can provide is limited. It would be waste of time and our life if we try to run away from the reality, even though we can concentrate on real life and really can change some things. 
     It is true that the film deserves some criticism for making the situation seem dramatic through editing techniques. However, I think it was necessary to make people awake themselves and realize what is truly important in life. 

An Ode - 2nd draft.

Ode to My Glasses

I think it was my fate that we were destined to meet. As I get older, my eyesight failed little by little and I needed you. Nobody forced me to use you, but I had to. When we first met, I was surprised and amused that I was able to see all the details about objects which I was never able to do. However, I realized that wearing you made me dizzy. You helped me see things clearer, but you make me feel dizzy at the same time. I guess too much detail through a distorted view is the main cause. I couldn’t comprehend things freely when I was wearing you.

Now I want to tell you my story. When I was young, I had no problem getting along with people and friends. But as I got older, I began to see and concentrate on people’s little foibles rather than trying to understand a person as a whole. This attitude gradually grew inside my mind, causing me to be alone since I began to hate most of the people inside my mind. At first, I couldn’t understand why I was losing my friends at first. When I was having a hard time, you came up in my mind. I thought that the situation was similar to seeing the world through you, my glasses. I realized that I was wearing glasses in my mind. I just considered too much detail, including faults, and thus distorted my mind to assume that most people are bad. I learned that I had to take off my glasses to see and judge people properly. Even a very nice person has some defects. In fact, everyone’s got weaknesses. However, these few defects don’t make a person bad. Soon, I was able to realize that almost every person is nice, when I try to understand them in a broad picture.

Not only limited to relationships with other people, I try to take off the glasses in my mind when I see my life in a pessimistic point of view. I often think that I’m unhappy because of worries and problems that I have. However, our mind sometimes distorts our situation to make the situation seem worse than it really is. Thus, I try to look at my life in a broad and undetailed perspective by ignoring minor troubles that I have, and it helps me regain my will and motivation.

                             

So, I want to thank you for teaching me a very important lesson. Because I don’t use you often, please don’t think that I think less of you. Although you failed to help me with your original purpose, the lesson you gave me about how to deal with people and life is helping me every day. You helped me take off one more pair of glasses that I was wearing in my mind. 

Wal-Mart Controversies : Pros of Walmart

Pro Wal-Mart Article

Wal-Mart Is Good For You

Tom Van Riper, 01.10.08, 6:00 AM ET

In Pictures: Wal-Mart Is Good For You

It may surprise--or even infuriate--critics, but a new study finds Wal-Mart benefits rather than harms the American economy.

That's the conclusion of a report just released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, which studied the "Wal-Mart(nyse: WMT - news - people ) effect" for 89 counties in its region over the past two decades. The study shows that between 1985 and 2003, personal income, overall employment and retail employment grew faster in counties with a Wal-Mart than in those without one.

In Pictures: Ten Wal-Mart Myths

Surprised? Don't be. Just acknowledge that Adam Smith was probably right: An exchange of goods at low prices benefits everyone. In the case of Wal-Mart, it seems evident that its lmodel of low prices brings more choice to consumers, which is why so many choose to shop there.

While it is widely (or maybe not so widely) believed that Wal-Mart wipes out local jobs and depresses wages, "the findings suggest the opposite: Firm growth, employment and total earnings were somewhat stronger in Wal-Mart counties," the report says. Still, according to a Pew study cited by the report, 24% of Americans think the company is bad for the economy, and 31% had an unfavorable view of it.

Yet Wal-Mart accounts for almost 6% of retail and food sales in the U.S.--7.5% if you include car sales, according to the report. Among those living near a Wal-Mart, the Pew study found 81% said it was a good place to shop. Five out of six Americans shopped at the stores in 2005. Nearly 90% of the U.S. population lives within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart store, and two-thirds of all retailers are located within five miles of one, the Fed's report says.

The retail behemoth, which grew to dominance through a strategy of serving lower- to middle-income customers, is one of the greatest success stories in American business history. Some economists give more credit to the company than to Alan Greenspan for the low inflation of the past 20 years, given how greatly its low-cost model has rippled through the industry and the economy.

"Wal-Mart has been at the forefront of the productivity boom," says Ohio University professor Richard Vedder, author of the book The Wal-Mart Revolution. Retail, historically a sleepy industry that has lagged the productivity curve, was basically slapped into shape during Wal-Mart's march to dominance in the 1980s. The result: an awakened industry that's had to work harder than ever to serve consumers at lower prices.

In his book, Vedder cites Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that Wal-Mart's wages lag the retail-industry average by just a small margin, an expected result given that the bulk of its stores are located in low-income areas. There's also no proof that company managers have discriminated against employees at a greater rate than anywhere else. And about 90% of Wal-Mart workers are covered by a health plan, either through the company or a spouse's plan. Again, that's in line with the industry average.

The Minneapolis Fed doesn't claim that Wal-Mart is a boon to every local economy it touches, just that its advantages outweigh its disadvantages. By now, at least that much should have been obvious.
http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/09/walmart-retail-economy-biz-commerce-cx_tvr_0110walmart.html